The Wake Forest Town Board’s work session Tuesday night, the first meeting for new Town Manager Kip Padgett, covered everything from the status of the county-wide transit plan; hearing from planning board candidates; the possibilities of real restrooms at the Smith Creek Soccer Center; a request for a loan to help build the Grandmark Avenue extension; a real spat about moving the operation of the Renaissance Centre from Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources to Administration: and an update on the status of RSTand high-speed fiber networks in town.
Deputy Town Manager Roe O’Donnell, who had been the interim town manager until Padgett took office Monday morning, sent out a memo to the mayor and commissioners Thursday, July 2, saying, “As you are aware, we have proposed the transfer of responsibility for the oversight of the Renaissance Centre from the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department to the Administration Department. The effective date of the proposed transfer would be that on which the new Centre Manager first reports to work. [The first director, Pam Stevens, recently resigned.] It is not (bold in the memo) our intention to create a new department at this point – that would be done at budget time and only with the concurrence with the Board.” The memo goes on to list five reasons that the transfer makes sense and is needed.
That memo apparently infuriated Commissioner Margaret Stinnett, who berated O’Donnell for the “lack of transparency” and said, “. . ., but I think that the way that this was done was underhanded and was wrong.” When O’Donnell said “we” made this administrative change, Stinnett demanded, “Who is we?”
Commissioner Anne Reeve asked why she thinks it is underhanded, and Stinnett said the board had just approved a new master plan for the parks and rec department without any mention of this change. Stinnett also hinted that Mayor Vivian Jones knew about the change in advance, but Jones said that was not true. “I was told about this shortly before he sent out the memo.”
Reeve pointed out that the center is proving to be extremely popular and continually adding new programs and events. “It’s getting bigger and bigger” and needing more oversight. Stinnett replied, “I think the manager of the center was overwhelmed, but [Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Director]Ruben was not overwhelmed.”
Commissioner Zachary Donahue agreed with Stinnett, saying “something is off” and noting again that there was no board discussion about the change.
O’Donnell apologized for the change which has not yet taken place. “I didn’t think it was anything out of the ordinary.” He said it could be the first step in creating a new department for the center. And later, “I’ll take full responsibility for this.”
Commissioner Jim Thompson asked for the update about RST, the firm which came to town last year with big plans to install a high-speed fiber network but became bogged down when it took much longer than anticipated for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to agree to allow their fiber conduit to cross the Neuse River on other utility pipes. He said the firm’s withdrawal from town and refusal to communicate with town officials “has got to be concerning” and asked if a recent federal ruling would allow the town to operate its own high-speed network like Wilson does.
O’Donnell said the abrupt departure and lack of response has been a big surprise to the town. “They would not return our phone calls.” He noted that they had built a trunk line from Departure Drive in Raleigh to Wake Forest and even made connections to some houses in two subdivisions. “They also started to do a fiber run up to Henderson where they have a backbone and got five miles” before abandoning the project.
RST still owns inground infrastructure in and near Wake Forest that is worth $4 to $5million, O’Donnell said. “We understand they are trying to sell the company,” and have lots of service equipment in the town of Shelby, where RST has its headquarters, but may not currently be serving all or any of the Shelby customers. RST has been approached by Google, but there is no agreement.
The town is trying to interest other servers, such as CenturyLink, but O’Donnell said that firm is only interested in providing service to new areas like Traditions and Holding Village. Heritage is already served by Windstream. TimeWarner will upgrade its service to 300 mb next Tuesday to most of Wake Forest without any increase in charges.
Another possibility is asking ElectriCities to help Wake Forest attract a different provider for fast internet and other electronic services.
“The town hasn’t spent any money and citizens haven’t spent any money,” O’Donnell said.
Engineering Director Eric Keravuori told the commissioners the town is short $167,500 for the needed $327,268 to build the 500-foot section of Grandmark Avenue to connect deadend Capcom Avenue with Rogers Road and a protected left turn. The state Department of Commerce has approved a $110,000 grant because it would help bring 110 jobs to 3Phoenix,which has been sold, and make the business park more attractive; an adjacent property owner will donate $25,000; and the town has $24,850 in a fund to pave dirt streets.
“I’m here to secure funding to get the project completed,” Keravuori said, and told the board the best route would be an internal town loan from the Futures Fund at 2.5 percent for five years. When Donahue asked about using a bank loan and wondered if that would deplete the Futures Fund to make it impossible for it to loan another venture money, Finance Director Aileen Staples said the fund is now at $1.3 million and growing each month because the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina is repaying a loan every month.
O’Donnell said the request had gone to the Futures Fund board of directors, who agreed to make the loan. Both Stinnett and Donahue said they wanted to see the recommendation from the board in writing, and Stinnett said, “I would like to see the minutes from that meeting also.”
The request will be on the board’s July 21 meeting agenda.
A reexamination of the town’s flood plains and flood ways may make bathrooms possible at the soccer center, Assistant Town Engineer Holly Miller and Ruben Wall, head of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources, said. Miller used pictures of the hurricane-caused flooding in 2006 which was deep over all the soccer fields. One reason for the deep flooding there after 7 inches of rain was that the low Rogers Road bridge, about to be replaced with a higher and wider one, held back the water and acted as dam.
The preliminary results from the new study show that a significant portion of the soccer center, particularly the parking area and the land close to it are no longer in the 500-year floodplain. “We could have something beautiful right in there,” Miller said.
They may consider environmentally friendly green restrooms, but they will probably tie into the sewer line nearby. There is already water at the fields.
Jones suggested they look at other options such as portable toilets on trailers. Currently there are three portapotties at the soccer center.
Tim Gardiner with Wake County explained how the transit planning process is going and the four alternatives that are possible along with a combination of two alternatives. The large choices are between having more ridership in a concentrated area or more coverage over most of the county.
For Wake Forest, Gardiner said the town will continue to have the bus service it pays for now but that any additional service from the plan will be free.
The plan will be completed in October and Gardiner said they are contemplating holding a referendum on a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the plan in the fall of 2016.
